KM Unit – ART. 12: Hours of Work

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1. The workweek for employees shall be from 12:01 a.m. Sunday morning to 11:59 p.m. the following Saturday. Workweeks beginning and ending on a day other than the above may be scheduled by the University.

2. Work Shift shall be defined as the normally assigned hours of work. The University will provide the Union with the current work shifts of bargaining unit employees upon ratification of this Agreement.

3. Work Week shall be defined as the normally assigned work shifts.

4. Work Schedule shall be defined as an employee’s normally assigned days per week and the normally assigned work shift. The University will provide the Union with the current work schedules of bargaining unit employees upon ratification of this Agreement.

a. The standard work schedule for full-time employees shall be forty (40) hours per workweek, shall be scheduled in shifts of eight (8) hours with each shift containing a thirty (30) minute unpaid meal period.

b. A standard work schedule shall consist of five (5) consecutive workdays and two (2) consecutive days of rest exclusive of holidays, provided, however those employees in continuous operation whose work schedules may be altered to accommodate regular rotation changes in shifts would be exempt for the period of rotation.

B. Meal Periods

1. Every three (3) months each employee shall choose their preferred schedule of a thirty (30) minute lunch or one (1) hour lunch. Such meal period shall not count as time worked nor time on pay status.

2. An employee who is required to return to work during a scheduled meal period and whose meal period is not rescheduled shall be paid for the meal period at a premium of time and one half (1-1/2) per hour.

3. An employee required to stand watch and remain on the job at their work station for their full shift period shall be permitted to take a meal period, not to exceed thirty (30) minutes, when and as their duties permit. Such meal period shall be counted as time worked.

4. An employee, except a watch stander, who works a period of six (6) continuous hours or more from the last scheduled meal period, shall be permitted to take an unpaid meal period not to exceed thirty (30) minutes, if conditions permit.

5. The University agrees to reimburse employees who are traveling on official University business for meals, under the same terms and conditions as allowed by UC Merced policy.

C. Work Schedules: Shift Hours

1. Work schedules shall be posted on bulletin boards for four (4) weeks in advance and shall remain posted throughout the life of the schedule.

2. The standard eight (8) hour shift hours shall be from 7am to 3:30pm for day shift, 3pm to 11:30pm for swing shift, and 11pm to 7:30am for night shift.

3. The standard ten (10) hour shift hours shall be from 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. for day shift and 5:30 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. for night shift. The work schedule shall consist of four (4) consecutive workdays.

4. The standard twelve (12) hour shift hours shall be from 5:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for day shift and 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. for night shift. The standard four (4) hour shift shall be 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. for day shift and 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. for night shift. The work schedule shall consist of four (4) consecutive workdays.

5. The Work Shift and work weeks of all personnel shall be bid bi-annually by seniority or whenever new shifts or work weeks are created, as provided for the in C7 below.

6. All shift rotations shall be scheduled so that each employee is guaranteed the same number of hours within the pay period that he/she would have received had there been no shift change.

7. Management shall provide to the affected employees and the Union thirty (30) calendar days’ notice of its establishment of a new shift or work week. If the Union requests a meeting within 10 days of receipt of the notice of the establishment of a new shift or work week, parties shall meet and discuss the effect to the new shift or work week. Such discussion will not delay nor prevent the establishment or implementation of new shift or work week.

8. An employee shall be notified of any change to an existing work week or shift at three (3) working days’ in advance, except for an emergency.

a. An emergency, critical services and plant operations, as used herein is defined to mean an occurrence of a serious nature, developing suddenly and unexpectedly, requiring immediate action to protect property, equipment, life, safety, and health, including affected research.

b. When a change in work week or shift is made without the requisite three (3) working days’ notice, excluding changes to meet emergencies, an employee will be compensated at the overtime rate defined in Article 14

– Overtime, of this Agreement for all time worked on the new schedule or shift during the three (3) working
-day notice period.

9. If an employee reports to work as scheduled and is not notified that his/her work schedule has been changed, he/she shall be paid for four (4) hours at the regular work hour rate.

Rest periods not to exceed fifteen (15) minutes may be granted to employees no more than twice (2) in an eight (8), or ten (10) hour shift, and no more than three (3) times in a 12-hour period. Rest periods not granted, or granted and not used, shall not be accumulated. Rest periods shall be granted unless operational necessity requires that they be denied, but if denied shall be granted as soon as practicable thereafter. A rest period cannot be taken in the first or last hour of the shift.

E. Clean-up Period

A clean up period shall be deemed University, not personal time. Each employee may be permitted an appropriate length of time for a clean-up period at the end of each work shift, as necessary, not to exceed fifteen (15) minutes.

F. Call-Back Time

1. Call-back refers only to those instances when an employee is ordered back to work without prior notice after completing a shift and leaving the premises or those instances when prior notice is given but the work begins at least three (3) hours after the completion of the regular work schedule.

2. An employee who is called back shall receive credit for a minimum of four (4) hours of work time.

3. Call-back shall be paid at the rate of one and one-half (1-1/2) times the regular hourly rate.

4. The department shall select employees by trades to be called back in order of seniority and qualified skill sets. The call back shall be posted.

G. On-Call

1. On-call is time during which an employee is not required to be at the work location but is expected to be available for return to work. An employee placed on-call shall be compensated at twenty percent (20%) of his/her base rate for each hour on-call. Management requires the employee to meet all of the following conditions: 1) to be reachable by telephone or beeper; 2) to remain within a forty-five (45) minute response time of UC MERCED; and 3) to refrain from activities which might impair his or her ability to perform assigned duties. An employee who is called to work shall receive credit for a minimum of four (4) hours at either the normal rate or at the rate of one and one-half (1-1/2) times the regular hourly rate after forty (40) hours worked in a normal work week, if applicable.

2. Employees may volunteer to work on-call assignments and qualified volunteers will be assigned first. In the absence of sufficient, qualified volunteers, the University shall make on–call assignments and shall attempt to allocate on-call assignments equitably among all qualified employees in the same classification in the same organizational unit and work location. In the assignment of on-call work under this provision, management may consider special skills to perform particular work.

3. Employees contacted by management or designee while on-call or during non-scheduled hours, and asked to work remotely (e.g., answering questions over the phone or logging into a computer) shall be paid a minimum of one (1) hours of pay if the employee responds. Employees will be paid for actual time worked if it exceeds one (1) hours. Employees will be paid no more than one (1) hour of pay if they are contacted on multiple occasions during the same hour. Employees contacted on multiple occasions during the day with the exception of multiple contacts within the same hour, will be paid a minimum of one (1) hour per occurrence.

H. Trading of Shifts

An employee may request in writing to trade shifts with another employee. Upon receipt of such written request, a supervisor, at his/her discretion, may approve the request. No penalty payment will be made for shifts traded at the request of the employee.

I. Temporary Work Location

If an employee is temporarily assigned to work at a location other than in his/her regularly assigned section or geographical area, he/she shall report to the new work location unless otherwise directed by the University.